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parents and sisters and brothers and family of these children and adults who were lost. >> there were 18 children pronounced dead at the scene and two children transported to the hospital and pronounced dead at the hospital, and there were six adults pronounced dead at the scene. >> evil visited this community today. this is a terrible time for this community and for these familie families. >> good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. we are awaiting a press conference on the latest on the school shooting in newtown, connecticut. today, we are focused entirely on newtown. approximately an hour and a half outside of new york city, newtown, connecticut, is a small commuter town locateded in fairfield kocounty. it is a predominantly middle-class white community with approximately 30,000 people. they have several schools and synagogues and churches and it has a rotary club and basketball

league like many other towns, but yesterday, as many of you know, newtown became the latest statistic of what is a disturbing pattern of mass gun violence. a gunman opened up fire against schoolchildren and staff at sandy hook elementary and killing at latest count 20 children and 6 adults. the president addressed the nation yesterday in response to the tragedy. >> as a country, we have been through this too many times, whether it is an elementary school in newtown or a shopping mall in oregon or a temple in wisconsin or a movie theater in aurora or a street coroner chicago, these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. >> the newtown police continued to update throughout the day and night. >> we will leave no stone

unturned as we are looking at every facet off this investigation, whether it is the shooter or the victim, and we will look at everything, and we certainly will go in and out of state, and work with local law en s forment and federal agents and whatever we need to do to answer the questions as to what transpired here. >> this is a continuing and developing story, and for the very latest, let's go now to msnbc's chris jansing in n newtown, connecticut. hi, chris. >> well, we were expecting this news conference to happen two hours ago, but the delay is not surprisi surprising. i spoke at 7:00 to lieutenant vance who is the lead spokesman for the lead police here, and they are the lead investigators on the scene, and you can imagine with the number of fa l fatalities here and the number of victims here and extraordinarily complicated investigation is under way. first, you have the scene at the home of the mother of the shooter, and that is one scene. and then the massive scene at

the school. although, it did take place in one area of the school, and in two different rooms, and through the night, we know that the coroner's team was on the scene. late last night we saw a parade of vehicles leaving there including four cars who had priests in it, and members of the religious community coming together to try to help these grieving families. all of the families of the victims have been notified. what we were expecting here this morning is to get a list of those victims. of course sh, p many of them already known to the community, because in this close-knit town people know each other, and people have spoken among themselves, and many of them, of course, were in that school or know people who were in that school. the second part of that is exactly how this all unfolded. we have learned some things over the last several hours about the time line, where the shooter went first. of course, to the home where he apparently shared with his mother, and then to the school.

we learned this morning na he shot h -- that he had shot his way in. there were reports that he had been buzzed in, because the school has a buzz system, but a spokesperson said that he used a gun to enter the school and then went on a terrible rampage. there was a huge service here last night at the catholic church. when i talked to the monsignor this morning, he talked about some interfaith service, but the grief is so huge, and so many people want a way to express it, they did not think they would have a facility large enough, and it is so cold here, they did not want to hold it outside. i saw a sign coming in this morning at the local episcopal church, they will have a service at noon today, and the individual stories that you can imagine are absolutely heartbreaking about the people in the room who had to tell the parent parents that their children were among those who were not coming home. the monsignor told me he expects

six funerals this week, and one of the little girls who was killed was going to be an angel on christmas eve. melissa. >> chris jansing, thank you so much. in newtown, and this is a tough reporting, and you have been there on the ground for us, and thank you for that. >> thank you. >> let's go now to nbc's pete williams. good morning, pete. >> good morning to you, melissa. there is a great deal that we don't know, the why, and the precise movements that caused all of this to begin, but we know that the horrifying scene happened about a mile from the sandy hook elementary school where adam lanza lived with his mother nancy. whether she had a connection with the school is unclear. the school superintendent said she was never on the staff list, but others said she may have been a substitute teacher there, and some government officials said she was either a worker or volunteer at the school. in any event, authorities belief

that he shot his mother at the house, and then drove her car to sandy hook elementary. they say he was dress ed all in black. some say he wore a mask and heavily armed. he was carrying at least three guns, a handgun and a rifle, and those handguns were legally purchased by his mother. once inside, he fired dozenbes of -- dozens of rounds and killed the children at close range. there was confusion about his identi identity, because adam lanza was carrying an identification card belonging to his 24-year-old brother ryan who lives 80 mils s away in hoe boeken, new jersey, and police say they questioned him for several hours last night, but they believe that adam acted on his own. ryan told them that adam had a history of mental health issue, and they had not spoeken in a

couple of years. so police are questioning the friends and relatives and researching the writings on social media though he appears not to be much of a social media user. they are looking for clues that might shed light on what led to an unthinkable mass shooting. but friends who knew adam lanza say he was quiet and intelligent, but not social. although there was nothing that would suggest potential for an extremely violent act, so the big question is was there a t g triggering event here, something that caused him to single out this school. if so, what was that? we are still waiting for the answer answers on that. >> pete, let me ask one question, because i was on air yesterday when all of this news was just beginning to break, and at various points we heard about crime scenes in new jersey and connecticut, and are we confident now that the number of fatalities is not going to rise at least in the sense that there aren't any additional secondary

crime scenes? >> no, we have heard nothing that there were additional victims other than those at the schools and the mother at home. you are right, it was confusing yesterday, and because of the horrific nature of the crime. it was overwhelming for the police and other responding agencies, because they were trying to chase a lot of leads at the same time. there have been rumors of other potential victims, but so far, we have heard nothing to indicate there would be more. but the state police have said that it is the total number they are aware of. >> thank you, pete, for your reporting. we want to go now to nbc's national correspondent michael isikoff there on the ground in connecticut. we are waiting for the press conference with the local authorities. michael, what are you hearing? >> well, melissa, we are waiting for the press conference and hoping to learn more. one of the striking things in a story like this is so much of

what is reported originally then ha to be amended and turns out to be wrong. i mean, it started right from the beginning yesterday when there was confusion between adam lan lanza, and the shooter and his brother, and the initial reports that it was his brother who was the shooter. that is wrong. reports yesterday that he buzzed his way into the school under the school security, and as chris mentioned, i spoke this morning to the lieutenant of the newtown police who said that is not the case. they believe he shot his way into the school. there was shattered glass by the window adjacent to the door. one other, and there is still a lot we don't know about the suspect adam lanza, but we did talk this morning with a friend of his mother's who told us some very interesting things. first of all that she was very disturbed about her son, knew he was unstable and protective of

him and worried about his mental health. we heard that he had mental health issues. there has not been a lot of specificity of it. we are learning from the friend of the mother that there was concern about this. and the other part of it that we have learned is that she was the owner of those gun, and the friend tells her that she was an avid gun collector, and that she went to local shooting ranges and took her sons to the shooting ranges. she enjoyed shooting. it was a passion of hers. what we should make of that, i don't know. but those were the guns used to shoot these children, and it is from the mother, of course, adam lanza, had shot first before he went to the school. >> thank you, michael isikoff. we are continuing to await the

press conference in newtown, connecticut. we will learn more at that time about the horrific crime. we will take you there live as s soon as it begins, but after so many shooting tragedies this year, is this one finally, finally the tipping point in a gun control debate? we will be right back. i'm done! "are you a cool mom?" i'm gonna find out. [ female announcer ] swiffer wetjet's pads are better than ever. now they have the scrubbing power of mr. clean magic eraser so you don't have to get down on your hands and knees to scrub away tough, dried-on stains. hey, do you guys think i'm "momtacular" or "momtrocious"? ♪ [ female announcer ] swiffer. now with the scrubbing power of mr. clean magic eraser. for thos...this...ions of doing ththis...bing power ...and this, dancing in their heads... ...we have these. home depot gift cards.

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let's go to newtown, connecticut, now, where the police are expected to begin the news conference right at this moment on yesterday's shooting at sandy hook elementary. >> they are in the process of doing some of their work, and as soon as that work is completed, we will be prepared to release in writing to you a formal list of names, birthdates and inf

information. there is one, and a couple of major factors. number one, when we release that list, and we would ask you again as we did yesterday at the request of all of the family members, they have asked for you to please respect their privacy. they are going through as i know you understand a very difficult and trying time. we have in fact under the auspices of the chief and colonel reassigned and continue to assign a trooper to these folks to help to maintain that solitude. so again, i would ask you, and i am pleading with you as you know this is extremely heartbreaking, difficult thing for these folks to endure, to please abide by their requests. in addition, for the townspeople in the town of newtown, a crisis intervention team from yale new haven hospital has been plished here in the community, and they

can be reached via telephone. that telephone number is 203-270-4283. again, they are open and available to anyone in the community who may have the need to discuss, to talk, to talk about this incident in its entirety. i have the ability to take some questions, and i just simply want you to understand that we still have major crime detectives and newtown detectives working at the scene in the school. that is not completed, and it will probably not be be completed for another day or two days, and i am putting a time limit on it, but it could can longer. as i have explained to you in previous press conferences, we have done everything that we can to literally peel back the onion layer by layer and examine every crack and kravcrevice of that e

facility and it does not exclude the outsidef of the building. the outside of the building is also a part of the crime scene and every single vehicle in the lot. so it is a long painstaking process. we have three teams now, and three major crime teams in the community, and the local part r partners are working with us, and we will move that and expedite it along as quickly as possible. we had a meeting this morning, and that is a delay with the superintendent of schools. she will be hopefully in not too distant future up here to talk briefly about some of the issues that she has encountered. the minute the medical examiner is done, and i mean that sincerely, the minute he is done, he is coming here, and we will again provide all of the detailed information or as much detailed information that we can r relative to the work that his office did both overnight and continue to do as we speak.

again, as far as actual specific questions, i will take a few, but i have to tell you that there are certain things that are cards that we are holding close to our chest in this investigation so that nothing is taken out of context and we have continuity of all of the information we provide. >> there were reports that there were other guns other than the ones that he used in the school. is that accurate? >> no, that is not accurate. the weaponry that was recovered by the investigators was recovered in close prox simity the deceased. again, we are investigating the history of each and every weapon, and we will know everything about those weapons and the recks of legally being owned and there are officers specifically identified to that task. >> and is the shooter adam lanza. >> again, with le have -- we

will have the medical examiner come out to verify the details. >> anything to enlighten you as to the motive was? >> that is a fair question. the answer i can give you on that is that the investigators at the crime scene and the school and secondarily at the second crime scene that we discussed with the female locate and deceased did produce some very good evidence in this investigation that are our investigators will be able to use in hopefully painting the complete picture as to how and more importantly why this occurred. >> can you tell us -- >> we won't name the evidence or talk about the evidence, but simply stated, it is part and parcel of the investigation, and i don't want to take it out of context of what is being done. >> can you tell us about the shattered glass that witnesses have talked about at the school. >> we have established a point

of entry. i believe that he was not voluntarily let into the school at all. he forced his way into the school, but that is as far as we can go on that. >> are there any broken windows at the school? >> well, quite frankly, if you take that out of context, it sounds suspicious, but as the rescue crews arrived the active shooting teams entered the school. they entered the school from several points, and necessitated forcing their way in to gain access to effect the rescue and save as many people as they could and hence law enforcement broke as many windows as they needed to. >> and what was the other crime scene? >> the secondary crime scene was a crime scene discovered pursuant to the investigation and once we had a tentative identity on the suspect, we began doing a great deal of work and peeling back the onion and everything that we could find

out about that suspect and including and not limited to relatives, friends, co-workers, former students, and locations of residents, and all of those areas, people had to be interviewed and all of the aer ea s had to be examined a enhence that is when we discovered the second crime scene which was the sole residence off a female that was deceased. >> do you think that you will be able to provide a motive as to why he went to the school? >> well, the detectives will analyze everything and put together a complete picture of the ed they did obtain, and we are hopeful, hopeful that it will paint a complete picture of why this unfortunate crime scene occurred. >> did you find the man or the woman -- >> there is one woman who was shot and survived, and how is she doing? >> she is doing fine. she is being treated, and she will be instrumental in the investigation. i am sure you can understand.

>> lieutenant, it is fair to say that the shooter appeared to break into the school? >> forcing his way into the school, and that would be accurate according to the investigators, yes. >> did he use weapons? >> i don't want to be too specific, because i don't know. i have been told that it was a forceable entry and not allowed to enter if you will. what i'd like to do is to, i'd like to get the next portion, if you will, of today and i don't want to keep you here all day, because i want to do this as expeditiously as i can and get as much intoformation out to yo. and the superintendent wants to come up with the town leaders to discuss certain areas of her responsibility, and then we certainly want to get the medical examiner up here, and we will do that quickly as we can to get the list of i.d.s and all of the information out to you. for any of you new today, the lieutenant and i have put

together a written press release, and we will wiprovide those at any vehicle. we will have enough for everyone, and if not, we will have more, and it lays out the basic details of everything leading up to today. we will try, and i don't want to give you a time, but we will try to be back here within the hour. i will make notification to some of you that we are on the way. yes, sir, one question? >> did the mother of the shooter have any connection to the schoo school? >> you have to understand that after the shooting we did a complete and thorough search of the area, and if we found anybody cutting wood, they would have been detained, but there were no other arrests with this incident. >> can you tell us -- >> well, i will have you address that with the superintendent of

schools, okay. she can give you that answer. we will be back. i need to get, and if i don't get here, we will be here quite some time. i know you have a lot of questions, and the people who are come here, and we can bring to you will answer to these questions and take the mystery out of what we are dealing with in the last 48 hours. >> lieutenant, do you think that the medical examiner will be here? >> that was connecticut state police commissioner paul vance. we will bring you the updates as they develop throughout the morning. first i want to bring in my panel. msnbc contributor ari melbourne, and michael dicer, professor of georgetown university, and joy reid, editor of the grio.com, and also our mental health

expert. obviously, we are still getting reports and know what is happening, but more importantly, we will know the names of the victims. so far, we know the name of the murderer, the name of the ass l assaila assailant, and you heard the police officer there ask the media not to go invade their homes. >> right. >> what are the kind of ethics of being media in a moment like this? >> well, i can tell you that when i saw initially the reports where they interviewed these little kids, all right, it was heartbreaking to watch, and it also felt wrong in a way. although, i know when my kids were registered in school in florida, they were media released meaning that you sign a media release at the beginning of the year so if there was a media event that your children are cleared to talk. so i don't know if that allows the reporters to walk up to the child without the parent and ask questions.

>> well, in most cases, there were parents there. and we had this debate in nerdland, and how do we feel about what happened in terms of the conversations. >> well, as a parent, and viewer, there is something really wrong with asking a child to process a traumatic event so rekre recently after it happened and asking them to explain it. and obvious i l everybody wants to know what happened, and those kids were in a position to know what happened. it is a fine line, but i have to say it was uncomfortable, and from the media ethics point of view, there was nothing technically wrong with it, but it did not feel right. >> jeff? >> well, the reporters were not trained to work with people who have been through trauma and yes, we want the kids to talk about it as quickly as possible which is part of the debriefing, that trained police officers and mental health experts are doing but you can actually retraumatize the child if you are not asking the proper questions, so perhaps we need to

pull back on that a little bit. >> it is interesting because the debate that emerged around us for us is on the one hand as you say, what feels wrong or what we may know is potentially re-traumatizing, but on the other hand not wanting to sanitize something this horrible, because in part, because this is, this is disgustingly horrible and if we make it just sort of the tears of adults then we miss what has happen happened here. >> i think that we have counter vailing values here. so that the press has a duty to get in there and try to figure out what happened. the police have a duty, and that doesn't always mean releasing everything that you heard in the press conference, melissa, and the families going through the mass murder and the tragedy, they have their own duty. we are not all going to be on the same page. the press reports on the tragedies burk not always

proportionately, and people do want to read and see and understand which goes to a longer conversation about action as well, but then we have to be careful because there is a reason why people use violence, why crazy people gravitate toward it, and militarism gravitates towards it, and part of the reason is that we as human beings find violence so compelling. so there is something difficult here if you watch the coverage and we have been through it before which is how do we make sense of this and how do we not turn away, because that is also a problem and social change and problem if you want to do anything about anything. but if you gorge on it without some sort of understanding of what the people are going through in that trauma, then we do risk exacerbating certain dynamics. >> i want to take a break and bring you in, michael, because i want to ask you about the other

bigget big ethics question, is this time to talk about gun control. we know the critique that it is not the time. i want to make the critique, that it is time to have that argument. we will bring you the latest developments in newtown, connecticut, throughout the morning. stay with us. for those with visions of doing this... ...this... ...and this, dancing in their heads... ...we have these. home depot gift cards. give the gift of doing, in-store or online.

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caliber semiautomatic handgun. on april 2nd at the university in oikos university, four people were killed. may 30th a at cafe in seattle, washington, five people killed and one wounded with a 45 caliber handgun. on july 20th, in a movie theater in aurora 50 people killed with a ar semiautomatic rifle. and then a temple at a sikh temple. and then four days ago at a mall in portland oregon, two killed and one wounded with an ar-15 s semiautomatic rifle. yesterday december 14th, at an

elementary school in newtown, connecticut, 20 children, and 66 adults killed and one person wounded. two semiautomatic handguns and rifle caliber shell casings were found at the scene. that is only a partial list for one year. each time the sound of gun fire followed by our nation's silence about gun policy. at the table with me is msnbc contributor ari melder, and joy reid and our mental health expe expert. michael, i want to start with you. to have a conversation about gun control, it seems that certain guns will increase body counts full stop. >> what do you need it for? none of us need the highly technical forms of weaponry available now, and distressingly

so to any person, especially a mentally ill person who does not have a thorough background check. can we get it on the books. can we talk about the assault weapon ban, and if you want to have a high capacity weapon, read "vanity fair", but to begin with the insane way that we are attached to the erotics of violence. when ari talked about the compelling character of violence and you know the studies when you are driving a car and when somebody walks into the view, the first thing is to unconsciously veer towards them before you veer away from them, and we can talk about the neuropsychology pathways that are laid down when violence is e rot cli presented to us. it is in video games and television and film, and my point is when it comes down to the erotic sheen that is around these guns and the glock and the

9 millimeter, we have the say, enough is enough, and that stuff does not belong on the streets of america. >> look. we live in a world where we are vulnerable, because we live with other human beings, and things will happen. yesterday it was like these things next to each other. 20 children in china stabbed. 20 children in the u.s. shot and killed. of the 20 children in china who were stabbed, no fatalities. so it is not the end of viole e violence, and you can't walk around and end violence, but a common sense gun law that addresses the issues of the automatic weapons. i wanted to show quickly the president in the second presidential debate in town hall meeting was asked about gun control and he did say at this moment that he was thinking about the automatic weapons ban. take a quick listen. oh, sorry, maybe we don't have

that at this point, but what he said is that what i'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation of how to reduce the violence generally and part of it is to get an assault ban row int introduced. ari, this seems where we could come together, an assault weapon s ban. >> well, it has declined with a ten-year sunset provision, and why a sunset provision? because things that are hard to get through congress regardless of which issue often are negotiated that way. that is why the bush p tax cuts expire and we debate over reviewing them, and mart of what the fiscal cliff is about. so it was difficult to get with less than ten votes in the house. we saw with it, the coalition expired e including congresswoman mccarthy who has been on msnbc talking about this issue, and tragically lost her husband in gun violence. she is leading the fight, and

she has 68 co-sponsors at the last time it was introduced in obama's first term and not reintroduced in to a second term. but you have to think that if this is a rational thing to do, build on the coalitionb and picking up your point and something that chris hayes said earlier, we don't have worthwhile national conversations very often. that is not how it works. >> no, you don't need a conversation on this. >> you don't need a conversation on race, quote, unquote, but we have good debates when there is leadership. we had a health care that went somewhere because it was something on the table and it went to the left and the right, and we need to build up the coalition for the mental health stuff, and that is on the congress and the president. >> i want to bring in the k conversation exactly this issue of collin goddard who is the assistant director of victim and

abuse advocacy for the brady campaign to prevent gun violence. he is a survivor of the all-time worst mass murder in a school in 1987 in the massacre of virginia tech. he joins us this morning. you have heard us just now talk talking about the assault weapons ban. what is the legislation that you have been working so hard to get passed? >> i have been working on this issue for three years when i realized that we don't do everything that we can to keep the guns out of the hands of particular people, and particularly dangerous weapons. the assault weapons background checks, and these are issues that we have been working on, and what is more important is to get the public outrage engaged. that is the missing piece. we have expressed our sympathies and condolences and the action has stopped there. we have not created a space for politicians to step up to lead. when i'm on the hill, i expect

to get a no, we won't sun port you, but what is worse is that i am with you and i accept the idea, but i can't support you in public. don't make me do this now. >> collin, i appreciate your saying that, because as i watched the president yesterday in the press conference and the emotion, certainly part of that was about the president being a father and the emotion i feel, but it is a different emotion, because when he comes out to say i'm angry, and i have an action here, and part of the tears were there is nothing i can do and no political coalition to get behind me not having to stand at this podium over and over again and talk about our children being killed. >> we have to make that coalition. we have polled gun owners and nra members and found broad support on things like background checks on all gun sales. the american people who are watching and believe that we deserve better than this and

deserve a nation that is better and safer, join us at we are better than this.org. you have to keep talking and engage in the process otherwise, we will have the same conversation the next time a mass shooting happens. we can no longer keep repeating it over and over and the same c conversations, because we have to move forward with that and we have to do it together. >> collin, you were shot in 2007, and the tact that we are here in 2012, does it feel like we have failed you? your fellow survivors and those who did not survive that massacre? >> that is a tough question. i feel good about what i am doing today and the the people i am connecting with with, and the progress in capitol hill and ledgislatures across the kun tc. it has been an overwhelming experience, but it is one that is very rewarding. we are trying to take the horrible situations and put it towards something that is positive so that these things don't keep happening to other

people, but it is key that we keep the public outrage and the public engagement on this. we cannot forget about this and not talk about it. frankly i get more upset on the days we don't talk about it, because we are losing children every single day. we need measures that will make us a safer place for everybody. >> thank you, collin goddard and i apologize for how we have failed as a nation over the past five years to move forward so that you don't have to sit here h and continue to talk about the mass violence against america's children with guns. we are going to be back with more lessons entourage dislike these. smoothes, lifts, defies? red jars are all the same right? wrong! you need three uses of a $15 cream to equal the moisturizing power of one use of regenerist microsculpting cream. seems not all red jars are created equal.

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we have been talking about what a tragic year this has been

with the string of mass shootings and the latest in newtown, connecticut. four months ago it was not a school but a place of worship that became a scene of carnage after a gunman opened up fire in a sikh temple. and we are joined by the chief of police from that community. we wanted to talk to you, because i said i would really like to talk to chief edwards, because your town, like newtown, we are hearing the language that you don't expect it to happen, right n a community that people think of as safe in a space, and either religious space or elementary school where you feel safe, and what is your message to the people of newtown this morning dealing with such a similar circumstance? >> first of all the thoughts and players of everybody in the

milwaukee area, and au -- oak creek, because i cannot imagine what they are seeing and going through with the loss of the children. but it is one of the things that the community in which you live in and feel safe, and it is a nice community, and very similar community to ours as far size and population, and everything is similar. when something happens in an area that everybody deems is a safe area, whether it is a school or a temple, it is shocking. and it all depends upon the communi community. the community has to get together for support. the grieving process is a different issue, and a different component, and everybody griefs differently, and you cannot tell somebody to how the grieve. but the grieving there, i cannot imagine what is going on with that, but it looks like the community is coming together to do things ark and this is

important to immediately start the healing process with the commu community, and it is important. >> chief, obviously, the law enforcement officers are part of the community and also dealing with grief. from your hole, how is it that law enforcement officers manage to find their own grief in moments like this? >> they are like everybody else. they are all parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents some of them. they are trained with certain aspects of it, but those first responders have something embedded in the memory for the rest of their lives. our officers went through this, and it is traumatic when you see and go through something that quickly and that fast and that traumatic and violent. you have to bring in people for them for counseling and get people on the ground immediately

and let them know that what they are going through and everybody does it differently is normal and the feeling is normal, and you will go through the phases, and you try to be there and off them everything that you can for the first responders, because sometimes we forget about them, that they were the first ones in the door, and we focus on everything else and and put them aside. it is important, because it will end careers and it has ended careers if we don't care for them. >> and i am joined by jim qadeer who is a psychologist on this issue, and we hear about the pstd, and the first responders and the community at large, and of course, the survivors and their families. and talk to me about what the communities need to be thinking about in this moment? >> it is about the debriefing to get them to talk about their feelings right now. all of the literature on stress

disorders say that the quicker to get all of the information out, and all of the damaging are traumatic stuff that has happened to them, the better the prognosis, and we need to keep the same thing for first responders not getting the debriefing or the counseling. we are seeing this whole idea of prayer and the spirituality and the people grieving. the chief is absolutely correct, in their own way, whether it is through religion or support groups and being able to communicate with a higher power or with someone else or just talking toogt. that is key right now. >> feeling like you are not alone. chief, let me ask you this, part of the ways that we can think of somewhat better in circumstances like this is that feeling that we might have control to impact it happening again. you just attended a summit on the mass shootings and did you gain anything about confidence

of what local law enforcement officials need to do to impact nationally to prevent this type of shooting occur again? >> i left there confident in the summit, because it was some of the most brilliant people i have ever met brought into this by ho homeland security, and john hopkins is facilitating it and basically a brainstorming looking on the prevention side, and the identification side. we had mental health officials, and university officials, and k-12 and law enforcement. what we did was to look at things and try to come up with the ideas on the front end of this, because there are models that people do identify things, and look at things, and one tof the issues that we found is that the interdisciplinary issues that we have, and sometimes we are separated and in our own world that we will look at things different ly depending upon your expertise and what it might be and we need to share that. that comes into play with civil

liberties, and a gray area, but ve to as a nation decide, what is more important, a sorry about 20 children or a story about how we stepped over our bounds and have information that could have saved those children. i am confident that some of the things that we discussed and the recommendations that we made will go towards trying to identify and intervene in these things prior to them happening. >> let me also ask you this in t the context of the of the shooting at the sikh temple, there was so much conversation about the shooting, the motive of the killer, and how can we ensure that we have a focus on the survivors and the victims and not constantly talking about the perpetrators here? >> well, everybody wants to know that, and this is the very first thing, and in this situation, also. i saw some of the news reports,

and everybody is asking, why, why, why, and they can't understand it and they can't fathom it, and sometimes we know, or they take it to the grave. in case, the individual left nothi nothing. we can speculate and we know he is part of hate groups pshg but we have to focus on why didn't we see it more than why didn't he do it? every time this happens, somebody says, that is the person i thought might do this, but they never came forward. that is the culture we are in to know the answers to explain it away, and just from this incidental loan from what i h-- alone, we want answers, but the immediacy should be with the victims and the victims' families and the officers, and explaining what we can. i think that they are doing a fantastic job to explaining that the minute we get something we will give it to you.

anything that i have seen i take from the law enforcement perspective as gospel from that lieutenant from the state police who is giving it. anything else is an unnamed source and a lot of those are changing, and they are trying to give it to us at the pace they can. but it is the culture we are in right now. >> ari, i want to bring you in here, because i feel like this is a moment after the sikh temple shooting, that chief edwards comes up talking about learning about state trooper vance and of course in the colorado shootings, and we think of the first responders as heroic in the moment, but then we make public policy which is going to make it harder for the first responders to do their job. so not only on the issue of policy, but how to help them do their job? >> well, if you see something, say something.

what we need to do going beyond that in the short term is once you say something, do something. we have to figure out how to move forward on the policy piece of this. that is what it is going to come to. i sense a little bit of the tipping point, because when you look at the numbers that we have been talking about. aurora, 12 people dead, and in coll limb bi columbine, and i remember that speech because it was moving and touching and not about action. if you feel it is getting worse when you watch, it is because it is. those i mentioned 12 and 13, but here we are are talking about 27 dead and children. what do we do about it? going back to the discussion if the nra has a stranglehold on it, then we have other models in the country.

if you look at the obama campaign, one was frustration with the wall street and bailouts and the other was inequality, and that sprung occupy and tea party outside of the political discourse. this is not dead because the nra stops congress. >> because the nra is not controlling our pocketbooks. thank you so much chief edwards and my panel who is going to stick around for a little bit more. coming up, we will go back live to newtown, connecticut, with the latest on the school shooting.

welcome back, i'm melissa harris-perry. all morning we are following the events out of newtown, connecticut. the town was rocked to the core yesterday by the senseless shooting spree at sandy hook elementary school. what we know now is this, 26 people were gunned down at the school while the lives of

countless others were ir revocably traumatized by what unfolded. 20 of those killed were schoolchildren ranging in age from 5 to 10 years old. six of those killed were adults. one person, the shooter's mother, was killed prior to the rampage, and in tend, the gunman killed himself. that puts the total dead at 28. while we are all overwhelmed by the number of people that were killed, we must not lose sight of the most important fact that they weren't just numbers, they were victims. in the coming days, we are going to hear more about each of them, and the memorial services and the funerals. that is what happens when lives are senselessly cut short, because they are more than numbers ash and the people mattered to the people who loved them, and to their communities. for the latest on what is happening on the ground, we go now to newtown, connecticut, with msnbc anchor chris jansing.

good morning, chris. >> thank you, melissa, you are making an incredibly important point, because i have spent a lot of time with the people who were in the room when parents were told that their children would not be coming home, and their stories are heartbreaking. we are hoping they will release the list of victims and officially many of them are known to people in this community. there were a few new things that we learned in the briefing that you saw a short time ago, and to the question of why and motive, the investigators are learning things at both crime scenes, the home of the mother and the shooting at the school are giving them indications of how this came to be. we know that the school is still an active crime scene, an an investigation will take at least a day or two to complete, and maybe longer, because it is very

complicated there, and confirmation of what we saw in the movement of veeckles that the bodies have been removed from the school scene. there are a lot of questions that the people have about the families, and they have asked for privacy. in fact, it has been emphasized that each family of these victims has been assigned a state trooper. part of that is to allow them their privacy, but the other part is to give them a sense of protection, to give them a sense of security, and you can imagine how shattered that has been over the last 24 hours, and also to keep the lines of communication open. part of the reason that we may not get a list of the names even though they have them, and we may not be getting all of the details of their investigation right now is that they want to make sure that, that information goes first to the families. i can tell you, melissa, from having covered these situations before, what they don't want to have happen is to have a family member turn on the television or

the radio or get a phone call from someone listening to the media and learn troubling information that they should have been told in a more sen sensitive way. so i have to say as i have been watching how all of this has been handled, they are doing a tremendous job of trying to protect the families who are going through something that none of us could even imagine. now, the religious community here is coming together as well. just really quickly i will say a number of services today both for the people of the community, aed on the be dedicated to theic have victims. >> yes, chris. i wanted to say about the intimacy of the circle of family friends and not finding out via television. obviously, newtown is close to new york city, and members of our own nbc community who live there in newtown and have friends and family as part of the school, and the sense of the intimacy here, and this is not

television news, but it is people's lives. >> it is their lives, and their families and waking up for the first time this morning that there is a bed in that home without a child in it. just the thought of it makes you sick. wrun of the thi one of the things that the police are emphasizing to me and us is that they are trying to keep it civil. and from michael isikoff we find out that information is changing, and it is not what we first thought it was. so they want to make sure that the information is indeed correct. there is a tremendous sensitivity to the impact that this can have on any of the family members, and any of those friends, and you want to give them that information first, and you want to be able to give it to them in a controlled situation. all of this has caught everybody and shock ed them in such a dee way that you don't want to blindside them if you can avoid

that. >> thank you, chris jansing in newtown. i want to bring in michael isikoff who is nbc's national investigative correspondent, and also in newtown, and what is the latest of the investigation, because we know it is ongoing and still there in the school. anything that we now know about the suspect or the motive or any of those questions? >> well, actually probably the most interesting breakthrough in terms of motive is the response to lester holt's question is any writings or e-mails found from the suspect adam lanza that would explain why he did this, and going into the question of motive, and as you heard the police spokesman, lieutenant vance did say that there was evidence that they have collected, and he would not detail it or describe it, that would shed light on that question. suggesting they have found either at home or in the school

some writing or something that would shed light on why lanza would have done this horrific thing. a couple of things that we are lea learning this morning, my colleague anna rapparoy had spoken to the mother of nancy lanza saying that she was worried about her son's mental health and that there was a lot she was worried about, and she had expressed the concerns about the mental stability. we don't have a lot of specificity, but it is confirmation that this is cle clearly a very troubled youngst youngster. and another aspect of this that is interesting is that the mother owned the guns and registered in her names and an avid gun collector and described as passionate about it, and took

her sons to shooting ranges, and this was something that was very important part of her life. now, we believe she had purchased the guns, and there is some indication that adam lanza, the suspect, may have tried to get a gun, himself, but the guns that we know about that were used in the shooting were actually registered in the name of his mother, the avid gun collector. >> who is also a victim of this crime. thank you to michael isikoff. >> who is also a victim of crime, yes. >> and thank you michael isikoff in newtown, connecticut. join joining me at the table are ari melber, and joy reid, and managing editor of thegrio.com, and psychologist jeffrey qadeer. and i want to say, that particularly from my colleague

chris jansing trying to protect the mental health of the families, and i'm wondering about the peg of the holidays here sh here, and there is no reasonable time to lose one's child, but i'm also wondering if for this community and the families if the peg of hanukkah and christmas and the holiday season is always going to be marred for so many and not just those who lost their children, but so many in the community. >> when you look at the spiritual community, what they do is to try to look at this, and try to not be eternal victims burk to look at something empowered and that the lord works this in mysterious ways and we don't know why it happened, or what this is about, but at some point, it will be something that we can better understand or process through spirituality. so my thought is that they would

use hanukkah and christmas and these spiritual holidays to get into the grieving process, and get through the grieving process and not just the mental health techniques, but also the spirituality that is all that is left for many of these people, because we as psychologists and psychiatrists, what can we go to listen and offer our support, because at this point it goes to a higher power to try to understand this depth of tragedy. >> jeff, i so appreciate that, because i recognize it that not everyone who is watching claims religious faith or those sorts of things, be but there is something that i appreciate from you as a sipsychologist to talk about faith as a tool of resiliency and as horrifying as this loss might be at the holidays for those who do claim some understanding of a higher being, and it does not have to be organized religion, but there

might be some comfort in this moment. >> yes, and that is the comfort that we look for. and we have people who go the narcotics anonymous, and they don't necessarily believe in god, but they believe in a power greater than themselves, because they can't shoulder it by themselves anymore, so they turn it over to the group. they turn it over to a congregation, and they turn it over to friend, and that is what is happening here. people who may not even be into spirituality or religion are going to be at the churches or the other houses of worship to mourn together. that is what is important. >> right. and that collectivity, and joy, you and i were talking about being parents yesterday, and one of the sort of traumatic stress impacts for those of us as parents and i was late to work because i could not stop, i could not stop hugging my daughter and playing with her and chatting wither h and you were telling your son to take the hoodie down post trayvon martin and yes, it is newtown and yes, it is these families,

but it is all of us impacted by the fact to send your conside d considered -- kindergarten off to school and not coming home. >> yes, you cannot see them, and they are out of your custody, and you cannot travel to them, because if something happened god forbid, it is that they are not there. and it is traumatizing and not just traumatizing for the moms and the dads, but the kids are talking about it. and i find that by the time i get home and i got home yesterday, my kids had had this c conversation with the friends and had it in school, and had it with one another, and they have whipped up their own fears. i mean, after the aurora shooting, my kids would not go to the movies. >> and my kid was like, and now we are watching movies at home. >> and they have still not seen the batman movie, because they refuse to go. and these are kids who are also in a new environment, and a bigger city, and what is frightening i think the most about this particular tragedy, you know, connecticut is a safe

state. this is not going to happen somewhere in intercity chicago, but the fifth toughest gun law state in the nation. this happened in a state that is the third or the second or the third safest state in terms of gun crime. people move there so that these things won't happen and you can feel safe. >> joy, you have brought us exactly where we are going to take a break and come back to ari and michael on this exact issue, because as much as i appreciate the psychology of that, so why do we think it is okay to happen on the street corners of chicago and new york and new orleans and when we come back, we will talk about the gun violence that is not making headlines, but killing our children all the same. [ man ] ring ring... progresso

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when the conversation in the nation turns to gun violence it almost always stems from the headline-making incidents and the mass shootings like the horror of newtown, connecticut, or aurora, colorado, or other places, and it is when celebrities and the sports world stands up to take notice. there is no impact of these tragedies, because they have to be part of our understanding as we undertake the difficult work of violence and gun ownership. but we also should focus on the gun violence that happens on a daily basis, and rarely takes the media eye, but decimates lives just the same. take the epic number of gunshot deaths in chicago which surpassed 400 homicides in september. to date, chicago has suffered at least 425 homicides in this year

alone, and though are just the ones gun-related. including the shooting death last sunday of 16-year-old jeffrey stewart. like jeffrey, 117 of those gun victims, 117 of this year alone were under 21, and now they are gone. it is not just chicago. in my home, in new orleans, 174 murders so far this year as of last night. most of which are gunshot deaths. 512 homicides have been record ed in los angeles, and 75% of those resulted from a gunshot wound. these are the homicides that are treated as routine. tragic, but expected, and yet, they need to be included when we talking about the newtown, connecticut, because their victims are just as real. joining me are ari, and michael

and joy-ann and jeff. >> well, i want ted to talk abo the top thak is so important and if you look at the research on the childhood development what we see is the exposure to what would consider adult themes and notions of instability, and insecurity, risk, violence and sex. throughout our history, and many different cultures, we have had a line between children and adult, and one of the lines is expose sure, and in the research what you will see is if they have had overexposure through life experience which is unavoidable violence in their life or through media which is why we get back to the conversation about journalism, and entertainment, it can dramatically change how people feel. that is part of the trauma here, and obviously, the hearts go out to what all of these children and families are dealing with, but that bridges to the point that you wanted to introduce which is that there are many

other places in this country where the cat has long been out of the bag, because violence is a part of the daily routine. i would not try to go on television and quantify the pain, because what is happening right now is that the country is looking at the tragedy of 27 people, and it is also a simultaneous fact that 32 people are killed everyday by guns in the country. so while we understand exactly how terrible it is and the story of oit and the way it happened is so dramatic, and we are rushing to it, and the president is speaking about it, it is also true as a policy matter that if 27 people dying is something that connotes the president's action, then everyday is this day as you were saying all around the kun tcountry tri. >> and the president, and as people were watching and in

particularly the emotion, he did include some of this chronic violence. let's listen. >> as a country, we have been through this too many times whether it is an elementary school in newtown, shopping mall in oregon, or a temple in wisconsin or a movie theater in aurora or a street corner in chicago, these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. >> michael, or a street coroner chicago. -- or a street corner in chic o chicago. so if 26 people die in a month, it is a tragedy, full stop. >> yes. >> the reality is that a lot of work went into getting that sentence into that president's mouth on that particular day. the existential anxiety he felt as a former member of the chicago community came full force, but the strategic intervention of people who said,

hey, what about us? it does not deny the legitimacy of the horrific evil we have seen unspooled before us. the threads of our common chaos just displayed before the world to see. but the reality is that we have become accustomed to believing that little black and brown kids and poor white kids in various spots across our landscape are due this kind of violence. you know, we are surprised it happened here. it is not supposed to happen here, which means by implication that it is supposed to happen there in detroit or oakland or california and in l.a. and the like. i think that's the tragedy here. and when ari talked about adolescence, and the loss of adolescence, and what childhood do these young people have? we spend more time concerned about the rapper talking about the guns than the guns they are referencing, and we are more worried about the metaphoric and symbolic intensity than the

actual violence. and in fact, some of the authority figures who rush to help the brothers and the s sisters in newtown and the police who are seen as helpers, and in those communities about which we speak, much of the violence and a significant portion of the violence is executed at the behest of a state authority whether a police person or the like against those vulnerable people, and there is the lack of cultural empathy, and what did michael isikoff say, he was a troubled child. well, there are no troubled children named jamal or janiqua or whatever it may be, and the lackf of economic sufficiency for the mores this and the fathers and the xexacerbating effects of povr which means you live in a poor community and that means 24/7, you are exposed

to things that we are exposed to ep sisodi episodically. >> and i don't want to miss this, and i think that we should have policy concerns. but i don't want to go by what is it like for a child who is hungry, who has lead exposure, and a small child who lives through katrina, and then as a teenager living in the chronic v violence of the streets, it seems to me that the kind of trauma that young people are facing, and yet we don't see them as victims so often, because it does not happen in the concentrated way. we think of them as both perpetrators and as somehow, i mean, every time we say this should not have happened here, it is as though it is not such a big deal that it happens there. i just want the same level of outrage. that's all. >> that is a great point, and think about what you said brilliantly summarizing that, but think about the young people who get the cues from the

society, and they go like, you know, i don't make that much of a difference, so it is easier to transmit the virus of violence to somebody near me, because if you look like me and if the television has said that i don't look like you and the president doesn't come to my defense nor the mayor, and they don't lower my flag, but they talk about my lowered genes as the essential moral inferiority, and so let's raise the flag to point where everybody deserves equal amounts of attention. >> more on this when we come back. eads... ...we have these. home depot gift cards. give the gift of doing, in-store or online.

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it seems, jeff, we should have some expectations over what these young people over the course of the next year are going to be experiencing. >> yes. >> let me ask you what we ought to expect from the 5 to 10-year-olds, and what should the parents and the families and the communities be looking for? >> well, if shg, first and for they have to look at issues of sleep, and poor appetite or overeat in order to self-medicate themselves, and they will have, and this is where we make the mistakes ourselves, because we say that our children are resilient, and therefore if they are not talking about what they are thinking or experiencing, well, then they are okay, and that is why it is so important that we will have to get them treatment to get them to talk about and get them to draw, and to get them to act out in play therapy, what it is that they are feeling which is the fear and the anxiety, and if fathe fact of l all normalnormalcy, and you talt the dying of innocence, there is no innocence for them.

so as the children become afraid of going back to school, which will happen, this is why it is important that we show and give as much stability as possible to these children, not just the ones in thele schools, but the ones in the town, and not just the ones in the town, but those in surrounding communities or anyone else that has been affected, because this will forever change how children look at school. >> joy, can you take what jeff is saying, and expend it out for mark and ari and i, and with the sleeplessness and the fear of going into public places -- >> and nightmares. >> what if this is that your normal and that violence has become your expectation? >> well, i was thinking as you were talking about a case in miami of a shooting that took place outside of an inner city school in miami and there was a body right outside, and that in this community, that is something that the children were

seeing on a constant and continual basis and people they know dying and people who will tell you as a matter of fact tell you that a cousin was murder ord as a matter of fact tell you that someone in their family killed someone. people with the same drama, but not a flash trauma, but a continual drone of violence. and then we look at the school performance and the inability to perform on tests, and the inability to function in society or become successful or become lawyers or go to college -- >> or act out sexuality. >> and in this inner city miami community, you had higher incidents of hiv aids and higher incidents of incarceration, and you have to ask yourself, did anybody ever wonder if there needed an intervention for them, and when there was a first flash, that nothing happened and the school did not close, and the community came together for a minute, but then another shooting next week. >> i will never forget that my

husband was running for office in new orleans and i met with some kids in the auditorium, and these were elementary kids, and he asked, how many of you in this room are related to someone or know someone who has been shot, and more than 3/4 of the hands went up. and he said, how many of you know people who are related to someone in priz sson and basica every hand went up, and i thought that in the whole education reform talks, how do we miss the answer to that question has such an impact on who these young people are. >> it goes to the fact that it does not match about the story that we like to tell about ourselves. 69% of americans have personally held and shot a gun, myself includ included. we are highly militarized society. but we are not a highly trained society. if you look at societies that have for example universal military conscription like israel, you have a lot of gun,

but you have 2 1/2 years of training, men and women, and everyone together. what you will see there although that society has a lot of other problems and that i have foreign policy violence, but they have far, far lower rates of domestic crime and violence. >> by the way, they don't have guns at home. in israel, most of the guns are not in homes. >> that is right. a lot of them are on e reserves and so they don't have the range of antique guns, and the semiautomatic weapons that we have here, but they have been trained from the inner city to the rural area for some of the policy reasons that we discussed in this show, no format of how the safely deal with it, and where to put it. and all of the cultural problems that you are touching on. >> thank you, joy, for being here, because the rest are back for more, but i want to talk

about the issues of how to begin to pr ekt the our children. i want to talk to you, michael, about what the forces are, and what might actually make us safer when we come back. [ male announcer ] campbell's green bean casserole. it's amazing what soup can do [ male announcer ] jill and her mouth have lived a great life. but she has some dental issues she's not happy about. so i introduced jill to crest pro-health for life. selected for people over 50. pro-health for life is a toothpaste that defends against tender, inflamed gums, sensitivity and weak enamel. conditions people over 50 experience. crest pro-health for life. so jill can keep living the good life. crest. life opens up when you do. but when i was in an accident... so jill can keep living the good life. i was worried the health care system spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life.

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for a superior clean. oral-b power brushes. go to oralb.com for the latest offers. often the first reaction to a tragedy like the one that happened in newtown, connecticut, yesterday, is to barricade ourselves in from future harm, and like a terrorist attack and forces us to abandon shoes and limit liquids, and lock gates, but there are no locks strong enough or security checks detailed enough to keep us from all violence, only systemic and wide ranging policy changes can have the kind of change impact that we hope to have. joining the panel now is gregory thomas who is the former director of security for new york city schools and the deputy director of planning and response in the national center for national preparedness in the

nation national institute of health. and i got a note from my daughter who said that our gates work and we are good. i thought, good, but you can't just build a moat. there is something bigger here. what is the common sense strategy for school safety? >> well, the first thing hardest for me to do as a parent and prak -- practitioner in the field to tell parents that it is going to be okay monday morning. where the children are going to be in the hours of the week where you are at wok or wherever you have to be, school is the safest place to be, and we have to look at the lessons learned of the incident and others prior to that, and make some robust lesson plans which means going to look at the safety plans in schools and they are up to date, because the event s as are not

statsta dynamic, but static. and a lot of the shootings that have been perpetrated in schools where they have had targeted violence and the perpetrator picked the schools, there are ten warning signs that tell you it is going to happen. when i watched the coverage, i could check the boxes. the young man was troubled. socially awkward and a challenge at home recently with the parents divorced, and that would be a big indication, but more importa importantly, it was not a one-off event, but more than likely planned. and law enforcement does not play a big role in the event, and at that point it is too late, because they have perpetrated a suicide. >> i worry, michael, because i remember when we started to put the metal detectors in schools and i thought now on one hand, i

feel safer, but we have sort of like the point of social awkwardness and say, you are socially awkward and you look like a potential serial murderer. >> well, it is the canary in the coal mines, and it has been going along so longtastasizing the neighborhoods, and sorry about this medal stuff, but it is demonizing people, themselves, and because socially awkward could mean that you are socially awkward and grow up to be somebody who is a nerd versus somebody who is a physicist. so i think that it is hard to tell nonyl the aftermath that this particular to predict the fact that out of thousands of awkward kids, one of them is a mass murder, and it is difficult to predict. >> i want to ask a local question for you, gregory.

i went to a high school, and melissa, and i were talking about this, when i was 15, we had a kid in school hours shoot two other student, and nobody was killed and it was garfield high school in seattle, and we went through the incredible trau marks and that level that you have worked at, as an administrator, that is not nra and congress, because those are different levels of government, but we had a lot of conversat n conversations about metal detectors and more armed guards in the school, and what we came out to in that decision, and i'm condensing is not to make the change, because the nature of the school was 1,700 students and we weren't going to metal detect everybody, because it was not viable, and so what do you do in the unique environments that you have worked and you have to have people safe, be but you have to make policy decision

s. >> well, some of the protectors are bellwethers and not panaceas. so if you have metal detectors, you can't ensure that the child is safe on the way to school and after school on the way home, and so these knee-jerk reactions that tend to happen, they put a salve on it, but there is a bigger problem. >> i agree with you, when we look at the whole idea of metal detectors it is like corporal punishment, and child x acts out, we resort to hitting the child instead of looking at the big issue, and instead of throwing the metal detectors at it, it is not the answer, itself. how do you make a child who is awkward less awkward? >> well, we celebrate nerdiness.

>> well, it is the new sexy. i was the nerd for the long time and still am. but if we are looking at a child that is awkward and take it to the next step, what else do we see, because that is who the child is or awkward because of the strange thoughts running through the child's mind and the child can't get along with other. >> are they being bullied? the beginning of a personality disord disorder. so we don't want to leave out any students, but how do you address the issue. >> i want to follow up on the idea that school is the safest place to be, because obviously, this is part of the conversation in the chicago teacher's strike, and part of it was conversation of longer days and the mental health services in the schools, and at this point, there is a kid trying to do the right thing, but getting on the bus in

dangerous neighborhoods and feels because we have said as a cull chir, if y-- culture, if y are feeling in danger, carry a weapon, and they may not be injured in school, but on the way to school. so you can't just live in the happily valley world, but to see the world in which our kids live. >> well, the point is that we are trying to do everything except for the thing that we know what to do which is the guns and the proliferation have had a lethal impact on our society, and what we are worried about here and all of the panaceas that we come up here, and the moats that we try to build up to keep the violence out, it does not work. the stuff does not work ultimately, because somebody with malicious intent is going to find a way to do it, but we don't have to enable them. we are a nation of enablers, and we are enabling through the gun policies that are so lax, and the nra lobby that is so p popular, we have refused to do stuff that is common sense, and

this is wrong and lethal and a horrible effect on us, and why not as a nation come together and say, we won't repeal the 2nd amendment, but put some curbs on people's access to guns that will have a great and powerful effect on the community. >> we will be right back with more on this issue, and more on the shooting in connecticut right after this. ...we have these. home depot gift cards. give the gift of doing, in-store or online.

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to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. we are back and discussing the issue of safety. gregory, i think that, you know, obviously, jeff, all parents are going to be asking how should i talk to my kids, and gregory, also asking, what should i say to my schools, and as a parent, what should i say in the aftermath what should i see with the recognition that we live in the vulnerable world, and what are some of the answers? >> well, it is first that parents are involved in the safety because they are a key stakeholder, and at columbia university, we asked parents are

you aware of the child's safety plan at school, and many said no. we asked them, for example, if you were told by government to go north, because north is safer than south for some event would you go north, and they said, no, because i am going south to my child's school first to pick them up. that is going counter to what we just told you, and we told you that going south is not safe. that clearly shows you that parents don't know much about the safety plan, and learn about the safety plan, and learn about lockdown, and the parent unfortunately asked the question about how they were notified and roboca andl and asked her, and what does that mean? and well, we are having local responders and gridlock to go to the school, and it is a matter of engaging the school, and making sure that you are a key partner this safety planning. >> i was extremely impressed with the teachers in this

community, and as much as we were saying, okay, this is a place where nobody thought this would happen, but apparently some preparedness people thought it could and we don't know how many lives may or may not have been saved, but the stories a tnld ima -- stories and the images of the teachers and how they acted and behaved, and the front line responder for all of the attacks on teachers that we have seen over the course of the past year, this is a reminder that teachers are the people keeping our kids safe when we are not there full stop. i am just what so many teachers did in this circumstance is kno 9/11 which happened here under my watch, a teacher on that day, we had eight schools near the former world trade center and two hours and 350 yards south of the south tower. 9,000 students and staff evacuated not because of anything i did but because of the teachers and very smart-thinking principals. one teacher was quoted she

learned a valuable less on on that day. she could only go as fast as her slowest child. >> i want to ask you our last moments here before we take a quick break. this is what we'll have to say to our schools. what do we say to our kids tonight. people living everywhere. kids are starting to hear it, talk about it. what do we talk about? >> one of the most important things we do before we even speak is to hug our kids. show them we love them. there is safety at home and they will be safe. of course there is no guarantees in going back to school. we'll try to keep them as safe as possible. more than anything else, find out what they know, what their questions are, what it is that they're experiencing. and then begin there. and make it a series of conversations. and it's not just the sit down let me talk to you but it's doing other activities where they can be much more comfortable in speaking with you. so begin that series of conversations right now. and keep that conversation going always. because there will be other tragedies and other issues in

their lives that we should know about. >> this is a great lesson i learned having grown up in a family of girls where you can sit down and talk then when my nephew came along you play basketball while you talk to them. there's a way of doing the work while you're talking to them. thank you to my panel. up next, don't go away. we've got a poem about our children. begin. tomato, obviously. haha. there's more than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala! smooth, but crisp. it's kind of like drinking a food that's a drink, or a drink that's a food, woooooh! [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. could've had a v8. [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. is bigger than we think ... sometimelike the flu.fer from with aches, fever and chills- the flu's a really big deal. so why treat it like it's a little cold? there's something that works differently than over-the-counter remedies. prescription tamiflu attacks the flu virus at its source.

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we expect that our parents will leave us someday. perhaps too soon and before we are ready. surely there will be grief. but it's within the nature of things that we will someday lay our parents to rest. but no parent should ever bury a child. we should hold them, we should dry their tears, we should laugh at their antics, guide their decisions, but we should not ever have to bury them.

1923 the poet ca gibral wrote "your children are not your children. they are the sons and daughters of lifelonging for itself. they come to you but not from you. though they are with you yet they belong not to you. you may give them your love but not their thoughts for they have their own thoughts. you may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow which you cannot visit. not even in your dreams. you may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you. for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. you are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth." we should be sending them forth. but far too many parents, parents in colorado, in chicago, in new orleans, and now in

connecticut have buried those dreams, those futures and those children who should have dwelled in tomorrow. we can do better than this. we must. and that is our show for today. thanks to you at home for watching and to the people in newtown, connecticut, as well as those affected by gun violence everywhere. our thoughts and prayers remain with you. i'll be back tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. coverage of the tragedy at sandy hook elementary school continues on "weekends with alex witt" next. now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. now why make a flavored heartburn pill? because this is america. and we don't just make things you want, we make things you didn't even know you wanted. like a spoon fork. spray cheese. and jeans made out of sweatpants. so grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

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